A personal computer includes an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) as a storage medium.
As well known in the art, a file system is adopted for recording and reproduction of a file on and from such an HDD as just mentioned. For example, as a file system of the type mentioned, an FAT (File Allocation Table is known (for example, refer to Microsoft Extensible Firmware Initiative FAT32 File System Specification http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/hardware/fatgen.asp).
In recent years, AV apparatus which can record and reproduce contents data such as video and audio data have been proposed and have become known as peripheral equipments of the personal computer described above.
Such an AV apparatus as just mentioned has, for example, a size and a shape with which it can be carried. The AV apparatus is connected to the personal computer by a predetermined digital interface so that, for example, it can fetch contents data from the personal computer side and record and retain the contents data on a predetermined recording medium loaded therein.
After the contents data are stored on the recording medium in this manner, the AV apparatus by itself can reproduce the contents data from the recording medium and output the contents data as sound and an image.
In order to manage the contents data recorded on the recording medium on such an AV apparatus as described above, also it has been proposed and implement to adopt, for example, a file system. Where a file system is adopted in this manner, since the form of the file management becomes similar to that in the personal computer connected through the data interface, the affinity with the personal computer increases as much, and in this regard, the availability is high.
Further, it is preferable to the user in terms of the convenience in use that such an AV apparatus as described above is provided with editing functions such as division and erasure of contents data.
However, where a file system is adopted for management of recorded data in such a manner as described above, this gives rise to the following problem.
Data management according to a file system directly manages data physically recorded on a recording medium. Accordingly, it is necessary to update the contents themselves of the file system so that, for example, in response to editing of contents data such as division or erasure, a result of the editing may be obtained appropriately.
For example, to such an AV apparatus as described above, updating of a file system is a significantly heavy process and a considerable load is applied to the system. Therefore, upon an editing process such as division or erasure described above, somewhat long time is required to end updating of the file system. As a result, considerable time is required for the editing process.